Person-to-person mobile communications is about to become richer, more dynamic and versatile, as services such as real time video sharing, content sharing, push to talk, interactive applications and games are becoming available for mobile subscribers.

During the Nokia Connection press events in Helsinki and Singapore today, Nokia announced the availability of the industry's first end-to-end solution for SIP based applications. The 3GPP compliant Nokia IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the key enabling technology for IP multimedia services, is now available for commercial deployments. Combined with the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) software development kit from Forum Nokia and terminals supporting downloadable SIP clients, Nokia can offer a complete end-to-end solution for richer, dynamic IP multimedia communications.

"With the Nokia IMS, operators can launch a range of new attractive multimedia services and applications. We have been thoroughly testing our technology with leading operators since 2001, and our customers are now preparing for commercial deployment of lead services," says Juha krs, Senior Vice President, Core Networks, Networks, Nokia. "In the future, IP multimedia communications will become mainstream, supporting richer, more dynamic person-to-person communications."

Launched in Spring 2003, the Nokia IMS provides the platform for introducing SIP-based applications as a serious network service. After an extensive testing period with operator customers, the Nokia IMS is now shipping, and live tests are ongoing in several major European networks.

IMS delivers a connectivity mechanism that enables terminals and other SIP capable devices to establish IP sessions between each other. These connections form the basis for a wide range of multimedia communication services and interactive applications. IP multimedia services can be accessed over any IP connection, such as GPRS and WCDMA networks, broadband home connections or WLAN hotspots.

In addition to sharing, gaming and other interactive applications, Push to talk over Cellular, the voice service for one-on-one and one-to-group communications, will work over IMS. Several operators in Asia-Pacific and Europe are currently preparing push to talk launches with Nokia.

For Nokia's operator customers, the Nokia IMS means new revenue opportunities both in 2G and 3G networks. IMS is specified in 3GPP Release 5, providing a clear standard for interoperability.

The Nokia IMS uses SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to establish IP connections between terminals. To enable the developer community to innovate and introduce new IP multimedia services, the SIP Plug-in for the Series 60 SDK for Symbian OS will be available from Forum Nokia. The SIP Plug-in provides tools and documentation for developing and testing SIP-enabled applications for Series 60 Developer Platform 2.0 devices. Lead developers participating in Nokia's early access program will soon make their first IP multimedia applications available, bringing real applications to market to support the technology rollout.

Several Nokia terminals support downloadable SIP clients and applications, including the Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620 and Nokia 7610, as well as new Nokia 6260 and Nokia 6630, introduced during the Nokia Connection 2004 press event today.